The Five Rings
by PickledWinry
Summary: She had seen the world rise and fall. This form, dark haired and female, had been conscious for only a few hundred years. In that time, she saw coal coat the sky, stars become mute behind a gate of human progress. It made her lonely, disconnected, and *angry.*
1. Chapter 1: Anew

Gaea stood inside her Viewing Room, watching yet another Red Wood cut down to make a cheap table. She had seen the world rise and fall. This form, dark haired and female, had been conscious for only a few hundred years. In that time, she saw coal coat the sky, stars become mute behind a gate of human progress. It made her lonely, disconnected, and *angry.*

There were times when humanity gave her hope, made the right choices, only to fall again at the expense of the Earth. Gaea could feel them tear up her beautiful planet, her home, her soul. It made the white streak in her hair spread, until almost all her dark curls were snow streaked mountains.

The 80s had been a hopeful time. Gaea had found a group worthy of wielding the Five Rings: Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, and Heart. They had been a motley crew of optimistic, engaged humans. They had confidence. That had been important to Gaea, that they have the same tentative hope she did. That each of those rings was wielded by someone who wanted to help save humanity and show them the way.

The Rings had failed Earth. Had failed Gaea. Those bright children had flickered out.

Gaea didn't like to think about those last few days. The Planateers had become a family of sorts, deeply connected through the magic of the rings. Perhaps too close, too isolated from the realities of the war they would be raging. When Linka died…

The group fell away, moving on with their lives or refusing to. It didn't matter,

Gaea had been left alone, with only her empty certainty that she would never find anyone worthy of wielding the Magic of Old.

Now the world was a harder place. Gaea didn't know what else to do to get her point across. Earth was dying. Gaea was dying.

When she could summon the Will to speak with Captain Planet, he would blink his tired light at her and ask her to let him sleep. He didn't have the strength to take his form. Earth, the Planet he was born to protect, was killing him as well. *My child… I won't let them kill you.*

Gaea had always felt the Five Rings were what the world needed. She had been born in a time when Science was not strong, when religion and paganism were strongest. Now, as she looked at the world, she knew there was more to it, more to the magic needed to stop the humans. Magic and Science were often the same, she thought, doing things no one could explain.

So she began to mix and mingle elements, she began to make new Rings.

She made a new Child.

"It is time," Gaea said. "It is time to start over."


	2. Chapter 2: Hydrogen

Gaea lovingly held the H ring. The metal held an orange sheen. Wheeler would have appreciated this ring, with it's modern feel. She had been tempted to ask him to lead the team, but when she checked in on him, his face was long and pockmarked. Disease had settled into the gums on his mouth. He had turned out just like his father, dried out with alcohol, swamped with drugs.

So, this ring went to Precious Andrews from Detroit. She would understand the loss of power needed to wield this ring.

Prez was a beautiful girl, something she had been punished for her whole life. She was poor, built out of scraps of dreams and the backhand of religion. When Gaea found her, she was sitting on the side of the road with one shoe, her party dress ripped, twenty-two and ready to die.

Gaea saw something inside Prez that few might have, the explosive violence of someone ready to burn the world to the ground. This was the fury Gaea needed.

"I can make you visible," Gaea said, sitting down beside the shaking girl.

"Who the fuck are you?" Prez demanded. "What the fuck do you want?"

"I am here to offer you a job, one that will change the face of humanity… one that will allow you to get revenge on the people who hurt you," Gaea said.

Something about Gaea made people listen, made them fall deeper into her eyes. Prez seemed to struggle towards the top of the water, the magic that made Gaea who she was. This made Gaea certain she had chosen right. Prez would be able to handle the ring.

"What are you offering?" Prez asked.

"I have been around this earth for a long time," Gaea said. She let some of her energy come to the surface, surrounding them with a welcoming glow. "I am a Mother and people are killing my child. My children. I need help to get back my home."

Prez nodded. "People are shit."

"I am offering you a chance to get back at the people who hurt you," Gaea said. "Those men who—touched you—are not worth the air they breathe. I will give you a chance to have power. You look like a woman who has not had enough power in her life. I can give that to you."

"I'll take it," Prez said.

Gaea held out her hand, which Prez took. She slipped on the ring. Prez seemed disappointed.

"I was hoping for a gun," Prez said.

"This is all the firepower you will need," Gaea said.

They spoke for a long time, about what Gaea needed, what Prez would do. When Prez walked back up 15th Avenue, towards the yellow house, Gaea smiled. Prez would get her revenge and Gaea would get her soldier.

*The best part about being an invisible fire,* Gaea thought, *was that no one expects you.* Those men would be incinerated before they knew what hit them.

When the flames leapt into the sky and sirens exploded into the night, Gaea took Prez into her arms. The girl was not crying, she was smiling softly.

"Welcome to the team," Gaea said.

She had found her Hydrogen.


	3. Chapter 3: Lead

Annabel Bachman was 27 and studying Asian History at a local community college. She was rich, bored, and listless. There was mental illness in her family, a suicidal edge that made people back away from the Bachman family. Annabel was the most functional of all her relations and that was not saying much.

Annabel thought the world was out to get her, leading to manic episodes and low points that she didn't like to talk about. She had obsessions, she believed in ghosts and demons, and she felt she was going to change the world. Gaea wasn't certain Annabel would be the best choice for her team, but the Ring seemed certain Annabel was the right choice.

Gaea didn't even have to explain who she was to Annabel. With Prez, she told the whole story. How Linka couldn't handle the pressure anymore and took her life. How Gaea's son was dying because the earth was losing her luster.

Annabel wanted to be special, wanted all the mental illness to be explained away. When a woman in flowing garments appearing her room at midnight, able to be touched, Annabel agreed without even asking. *This is how demons get their victims,* Gaea thought.

Still, Annabel was a Cheshire Cat waiting to watch the world burn. She had an acidic fondness for her family, but everyone else could fuck off.

"No one cared about me when I was at my worst," Annabel said. "So if you need help, I'll help. I knew you guys were real. I knew it. I could sense it."

And maybe she could. Gaea had always felt mental illness was 1 part truth, 1 part chemical imbalance. Annabel might not have been mad at all, but a sensitive with no outlet. Until now.

Gaea gave Annabel a ring the color of grey clouds. Carved into the top were the letters PB.

"Welcome to the team, Lead," Gaea said.

Gaea soon learned why the Ring had chosen Annabel. With Prez, Gaea knew the moment she saw her eyes. There was an invisible fire in that girl, her dark skin illuminated from within. With Annabel, Gaea needed a few minutes.

Annabel was hateful. It wasn't completely obvious until you asked her the right questions. Annabel felt loyalty to her family, to her mental illness, to the lifestyle she led. Money made her distant, took away the normal struggles and reality most people form. This mix was almost horrific. Annabel resented "normies" as she called them. She hated that they had never known the personal hell Annabel did.

"They just don't understand," Annabel said.

Gaea appreciated the hatred that ate away at Annabel. This was why *lead* chose her. Life had slowly poisoned Annabel. Now Annabel would slowly poison the world.


	4. Chapter 4: Fluorine

Gaea felt that Anika Bhanderi was perhaps the weakest choice for her ring. The F glittered on the top of the ring, though it wasn't as solid as the rest of the rings.

The yellow metal seemed to move under the right light. It was not a solid ring, instead forming a rather continuous loop of smoke around the finger of whomever wore it.

Anika was thirty-three and working as a dental assistant in New York City. She was originally from India and had plans to return there in a year's time. People had started to scare her, calling her names from the back of cars, bumping into her on the subway, calling her names she didn't have the heart to repeat.

One of her customers, Regina Anderson, had refused to let Anika touch her. "Your hands are obviously dirty. When is the last time you washed?" Regina said.

Anika had worked for Dr. Perkins for almost ten years. She expected him to stand up for her. Instead Dr. Perkins asked for Elizabeth to come into the room.

"It's for the best," Dr. Perkins said, his white smile sharper. "We want the customer to be happy."

Anika quit. She walked out. She didn't need that—bull shit. It was bull shit. So when Gaea sat beside her on the almost empty subway, she didn't look up. She was caught up in the unfairness of the while situation. She was better than Dr. Perkins and his narrow minded ignorance.

Regina was just one of those women who got what they wanted, who made others feel bad. All Perkins needed to do was stand up for Anika, take her aside and explain he didn't agree with the old bitch. But he just smiled and—Anika felt hot tears.

Gaea offered Anika a tissue. "Are you okay? Hard day at work?"

"How did you—Yeah. Yeah, I quit, a job I liked…" Anika said, taking the tissue. It smelled like lavender. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize," Gaea said. "If anything, they should apologize to you. Making you out to be a monster because of your skin color. If anything, John Perkins should be asking your forgiveness. He's fucking that girl, you know? The one who called you dirty."

Anika froze. "How did you?"

"I was there. Watching you. Waiting to see what you would do," Gaea said. She had been less impressed with Anika out of all the others. She was older, without the intriguing insanity found in the others. But the irony of *fluorine* made it at least an amusing meeting. Perhaps Anika would turn Gaea down, there was a hesitation in her that might be wisdom or fear.

"There was no one there," Anika said. "How do you know?"

Anika seemed to sense the otherness in Gaea, something that was a little bit impressive. Gaea had come in a human façade. Perhaps Anika would be the balance needed to keep some of the more volatile members in line.

"Would you kill them if you could?" Gaea asked.

Anika nodded. She didn't even think about it. The shame she felt when Regina looked at her, made her out to be a dirty little—it was there, burning under her skin, giving her a harsh sharpness to her long nose and thin lips.

It was beautiful. Gaea held out the ring.

Anika didn't even have to touch it before the smoke-and-poison circled her finger. Anika sighed, as if she had found her oldest friend after years of war. "What do I do?"

"You go back to work and make them beg for you to come back…" Gaea said. "Or just beg."

Anika nodded, standing up when the subway grinded to a halt. She got out of the metal snake and walked up the stairs. She hadn't even moved from the station, despite her long conversation with Gaea.

"Meet me back here," Gaea whispered in her ear.

Anika nodded. She had a mission, a mission Gaea would watch from a distance. Dr. Perkins and Regina Anderson would be the first to taste the power of the Tenth Ring.


End file.
